A laptop computer charged by hand-cranked power and designed specially for use in the developing world has won the inaugural Brit Insurance design award.

Yves Béhar, designer of the One Laptop Per Child, was awarded the prize at the Design Museum in London last night by inventor James Dyson. Other shortlisted designs included Hussein Chalayan's autumn/winter 2007 collection and the Penguin classics Deluxe Edition.

Béhar said the award was the "icing on the cake" for an ongoing project described by Deyan Sudjic, the Design Museum's director, as "a good deed in a cruel world".The computer uses 90% less power than standard laptops, and has a screen that can easily be read in sunlight. It has a wi-fi antenna and can be networked.

Developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the laptop is part of a not-for-profit scheme. "The idea was to create something entirely different," said Béhar. "We wanted to focus on the needs and desires of children and at the same time make a shift in computer design, keeping it at a low cost." The production cost of the computer is $180 (£90).

Already 600,000 have been distributed in the developing world or are on order in Peru, Uruguay, Mexico, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Mongolia, among other countries.

Béhar said none of the technology was patented: there is nothing to prevent the adoption of similar low-energy computers on the western market. The prize judges praised One Laptop Per Child as "a feat beyond the design itself".

It and the other 100 shortlisted designs can be seen at the Design Museum until April 27.